Movement as Mindfulness (Especially in Motherhood)
I was running and practicing mindfulness — not the kind where you empty your mind, but the kind where you notice it.
As I ran laps, I watched my thoughts come and go. Some were thoughts. Some were planning. I named them quietly in my head and then returned again and again to the same phrase:
All I have is this moment.
Lap five.
These steps.
Over and over.
This is the kind of mindfulness that fits into real life — into seasons where stillness is rare and silence feels almost impossible.
When Stillness Isn’t Available in Motherhood
As mothers, we often crave meditation. We understand how beneficial it is. We long for quiet, uninterrupted moments to sit and breathe and be still.
And yet, for many of us, this simply isn’t the season for that kind of practice.
That doesn’t mean mindfulness is unavailable to us.
It means it needs to look different.
Practices that meet us inside our current lives — instead of requiring us to escape them — can be just as powerful.
Movement as a Doorway Back to the Present Moment
Movement is often thought of as exercise: running, walking, yoga, lifting weights.
But movement is also:
folding laundry
cleaning up toys
carrying children from room to room
Your body is moving — and so is your mind.
Planning.
Replaying conversations.
Worrying.
Mentally organizing tomorrow before today is even finished.
This is the moment most of us miss.
Before starting one of these everyday movements, try quietly saying to yourself:
I’m going to practice mindfulness in this movement.
Then, as you fold the clothes:
a thought appears
you pause
you notice it
you name it
and you keep folding
Again and again.
This is the practice.
Why Mindfulness in Movement Matters
Because this is exactly what life — and motherhood — will continue to ask of you.
Your emotions will rise.
Your nervous system will react.
Your thoughts will try to take over.
And in those moments, you won’t need to learn something new — you’ll recognize what’s happening.
You are not your thoughts.
You are not your emotions.
You are the one experiencing them.
To experience something, you must be able to watch it — not become it.
This is the heart of the Natural(ish) Life:
pause → regulate → return
Why Physical Movement Supports Mindfulness
This is also why more physically demanding movement — like running, yoga, or lifting weights — can feel so regulating.
When your legs burn and your mind says stop, you notice the thought… and continue anyway.
When you’re balancing in yoga:
breathing
tightening your core
focusing on stability
There’s nowhere else for your mind to go.
You are fully in your body.
Fully in the moment.
The body becomes the anchor.
Feeling — Not Avoiding
And once you’re anchored in the body long enough, something else begins to happen.
You start to feel again — not just physically, but emotionally. Sensations, memories, music, moments you didn’t know were still living inside you.
While I was running, my thoughts drifted somewhere unexpected — to music from my childhood.
’90s rap.
Coolio.
2Pac.
I grew up in a small town in western Kansas — fewer than 3,000 people, predominantly white. As a young teenage girl, there was no real way I could fully understand the lives behind those lyrics.
But I felt them.
I listened alone.
I sang quietly.
I cried without knowing exactly why.
At the time, I didn’t have language for it. Looking back, I think that was my first understanding of something important:
We are meant to feel life.
Physically.
Emotionally.
And yet, so much of adulthood is spent avoiding feeling — numbing it, rushing past it, fixing it as quickly as possible.
Running reminds me that feeling isn’t something to escape.
The burning lungs.
The aching muscles.
The deep breath that finally settles.
I feel it — because it’s part of being alive. Because avoiding it would mean avoiding health, presence, and connection to myself.
And there may be no greater invitation into feeling than motherhood.
Movement, Balance, and Returning to Yourself
This is why the idea of movement keeps returning for me.
Not movement as hustle.
Not movement as productivity or pushing forward.
But movement as presence.
As feeling.
As staying with life as it unfolds — even when it’s uncomfortable.
As Albert Einstein once said:
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Not faster.
Not harder.
Just moving —
and returning to yourself again and again,
even in the middle of motherhood.